Joyce Meyer - The Parables of Jesus, The Talents

And God tests our faithfulness. He starts by giving us something small and if we're faithful to use that properly then he'll promote us. And then, we'll stay there for a while, and we'll be tested on that level. I can look at my ministry, the first two and a half years, I taught a home Bible study. Twenty-five people, in my living room floor, every Tuesday night, two and a half years. I quit a full-time job to study. Every month we had to have a miracle just to pay our bills. I remember buying my kids shoes at garage sales, and we had some very tough, lean years. And then, after a while, somebody asked me to teach another Bible study in their home. And so, for two and a half years, I taught two Bible studies.

So, first five years of my ministry was just teaching these home Bible studies. And I would study six, seven hours for each message that I got back then because I didn't know anything. I just knew that I was a mess and Jesus loved me, and I was learning and just trying it out on everybody else to see if it would work for them, like it was me. It's a good thing that, you know, and to be honest, I could preach back then, pretty much, like I can now. And I didn't understand why God kept me confined to that small amount of people. But I can remember watching other preachers on television thinking, "I don't know why you're on TV. I could preach circles around you".

Okay, that's why I was still in my living room floor. It wasn't because of what I could do, it was because of a wrong attitude that needed to be worked out of me. And so, instead of being jealous of what other people have, maybe we should do an attitude check. Come on, maybe you're a goat and not a sheep. We're gonna talk about them in a few minutes. Goats are more intelligent than sheep, but sheep are sweeter. I wish sometimes that I could accurately sit somebody down and make them understand what the early days were like. Dave and I talk all the time about driving to places to speak, and not even having money to stay in a hotel at night, having to pull over and sleep in a McDonald's parking lot till he could wake up and drive a little bit more. That's why it's so dumb to be jealous of what somebody's got. Especially, if you don't wanna do what they did to get it. Amen?

So, "After a long time the master returned and settled accounts," I love that. He's coming back to settle accounts. "The man who had received five bags of gold brought the master the other five. And he said, 'you entrusted me with five bags of gold. Here, I've gained five more'", I'm in Matthew 25:21, "And his master replied, 'well done, good and faithful servant! You've been faithful with a few things: I will put you in charge of many things'". But here's the exciting part. "'come and share your master's happiness'"! See, that's much more important than the fact that he got natural rewards. Share in your master's happiness. The second man, with the two bags of gold, the exact same thing. "Well done, thou good and faithful servant. You handled a little bit well, I'll give you more. Come and enter into your master's happiness".

You know what? Really, what we want is to be happy. Everybody that's out shopping today, is just trying to buy a little happiness. Truly. And we're only gonna be happy if we're doing the part that God has given us to do to the best of our ability, and not being concerned about everybody else. Amen? C'mon, some of you single girls wish you were married. Some of you married women wish you were single. You know, being married has its benefits but being single has its benefits. You know, if you're single and you wanna go out to that resource table and buy everything on it, you don't have to call home and get somebody's permission to do it. You can do what you want to. So maybe, you don't have it as bad as you think you do. Come on.

After a long time, the master returned. That was the same way with the ten virgins. After a long time the master returned. And our job is to just keep doing what's right, keep doing what's right, keep doing what's right until he finally shows up. The man, who took his bag of gold and buried it, he immediately, was afraid and he took it and he hid it. But when the master came back in Matthew 25:26, says, "Master replied, 'you wicked, lazy, idle servant'". Wicked, called him wicked because he hadn't done anything with what he had. You know what? I don't wanna make anybody mad, but I'm leaving and I won't be back for six months, so I can take a chance. If all you're doing is coming and sitting in church a couple times a month, and you're not really doing anything with your gifts and talents, you're not doing anything to make anybody else's life better, you never have time for anybody else, you don't encourage other people, you don't help, you're not the one to help when somebody needs to move.

You know, if you're not doing anything for anybody else then should I say to you what Jesus said to that man? You wicked, lazy... And you know what? You won't be happy. A lot of people wonder why they're not happy. Sometimes, I wonder how so many Christians can be so unhappy. But I know because God had to teach it to me. He said, "You are unhappy because you are selfish. What you care about is Joyce Meyer, and until you get Joyce Meyer off your mind, and you start paying attention to what you can do for other people to make them happy", see, the only way you're gonna be happy is to try to make other people happy. Come on, you gotta get this quick 'cause, as usual, I've taken too much time on the first half, and... He says, "Well, then", see, he had a wrong idea about God. He said, "I was afraid of you. I thought you were a hard master".

If you know God, you know that you don't have to be afraid. You can step out and try, and if you fail, you're normal. That was our message last night. Anybody here last night? Did you come last night? See, some of you are just being little piggies this weekend, you're gettin' everything you can get. That's good. There's so many people that are hurting and so many people that need help. And I'll tell you what, the best kind of spiritual warfare to do is, the warfare of love. Two of the most important things the Bible says is: faith and love. Continue strong in faith and walk in love. And in Psalm 37, it's talking about evil people and that you don't need to fret about all the evil in the world. And in verse three, it says, "Trust in the Lord and do good".

And if you just concentrate on that, you're gonna have a good life. You don't have to get up every day and worry about everything that's goin' on in the world. You don't have to be jealous of what other people have. You don't have to be all wrought up about whether you're married or you're not married, or you have this, or you don't have that. You just need to get up every day, trust God, and do good. C'mon, this is Christianity 101, made easy. "Joyce, what's wrong with my life? No matter what, I seem to be unhappy. What's wrong? Why can't I be content"? Well, get your mind off yourself and start seeing what you can do for other people. Sheep and goats. By the way, the guy who buried his talent, the master took it away from him and gave it to the guy who had the most. So, the message is use it, or lose it. Amen? Alright, the sheep and the goats.

Now, to me, this has a deep, deep meaning that is so beautiful, if we can just grasp this. "When the Son of Man comes in his glory, and all the angels are with him, he will sit on his throne. And all the nations will be gathered before him, and he will separate the people one from another as a shepherd separates the sheep from the goats. And he will put the sheep on his right and the goats on his left". In the Bible, the right hand is always the side of power. Jesus is seated at the right hand of God in heavenly places.

"Then the king will say to those on the right, 'come, you who are blessed by my father: take your inheritance, the kingdom prepared for you since the creation of the world. For I was hungry and you gave me something to eat, I was thirsty and you gave me something to drink, I was a stranger, you invited me in, I needed clothes and you clothed me, I was sick and you looked after me, I was in prison and you came to visit me'. Then the righteous will answer, 'Lord, when did we see you hungry and feed you, or thirsty and give you something to drink? When did we see you a stranger and invite you in, or needing clothes and clothe you? When did we see you sick or in prison and go visit you'? And the king will reply, 'truly I say unto you, whatever you did for one of the least of these, my brothers and sisters, you did it for me'".

Oh, my God. People say, "I'd love to see God". Well, look in the eyes of the person next to you. God's in people. And please get what I'm gonna say. He is very picky about how we treat people. And I can tell you, that I believe from my own personal experience, that nothing grieves God more than when we, as Christians, mistreat other people: belittle them, are rude to them, have no time for them. You wanna ministry? Most of you, it's not gonna be a platform ministry, but you can have a ministry that's even more important than what I'm doing up here, right now. My daughter, thankfully, we've taught our kids this, and we see them doing it.

My daughter said the other day, she said, "I don't know what it is with me lately," but she said, "I seem to be, God seems to have assigned me to talk to all the elderly". And she told me how she was coming out of the grocery store and this older gentleman was coming out, and he just started talking to her and talking to her, and tellin' her all about his cat, and his this, and that, and something else. And she said, "You know, I really wanted to get my groceries in the car and get home". But she said, "I knew God wanted me to just stand there and listen to that man".

Now, you wanna put a smile on God's face? That's the way to do it. I remember, a long time ago, I was in ministry, had my bumper sticker, had my rhinestone Jesus pin. I was on as staff at the church, had my own parking place with my name on it, had a seat in the church with my name on it. I want you to understand, I was important. I knew the right people. I was on the staff. One day, I was in the doctor's office and an old man was trying to talk to me about his leg and why he was there, and he kept going on, and on, and on, and on about this leg, and the snow, and on, and on. I had my Bible and I had my plan, and I actually, said, "Lord, will you please shut him up so, I can pray and read my Bible".

I wanted to sit there and be religious. Oh, how religious I would have looked in the doctor's office reading my Bible and being spiritual. And I'll tell ya, the Lord got me. He said, "Let me ask you a question. If that was Billy Graham, would you take time to listen to him"? Ew...Yes, why? Because he could have maybe done something for me. This old man couldn't do anything for me, so I had no interest in him. Come on, now. This is how I've learned stuff, the hard way. I don't give you anything to eat that I haven't had to eat myself. Are you understanding this? Oh, you have a ministry. Every one of you has a ministry. There's not a person in here that doesn't have a ministry. But maybe, you're so intent on having a ministry where you can be noticed and seen, and have a title, and be well thought of that you're totally missing the joy of the Lord.

You're missing the happiness of the Lord because you won't just give yourself to those little things in secret that God would have you do and maybe never tell anybody. C'mon. Oh, I believe those things that we do are some of the most important. You know, then he turns this around and I don't have time to sit here and read it all. But he says, "And if you have not done it to the least of these, my brethren, then you have not done it unto me".

So, it seems to me that God takes it very personally how we treat people. And I can tell you, if you just go outta here today and spend the rest of your life trusting God and doing good, not to earn salvation, we don't do good to earn anything from God. We want to do good because of what he has done for us. If you wanna put a smile on God's face, put a smile on somebody else's face. How 'bout if we make a decision today that we're going to give ourselves to just doing more good works, not to get something from God. He's already given us everything he can give us. We don't need him, I don't do, what I do, for God to give me something, I wanna give something back. And the thing he's asked me to do is treat other people good, especially, the ones that are hurting. Amen?

Father, I pray for everybody here, including myself, that we would walk in love, in a greater way. And that we would really care about things that most of the world don't care аbout: listening to somebody that maybe doesn't interest us at all, taking time to do something for somebody that we really don't wanna take the time to do. Father, I pray that we would follow your guidance and your leadership instead of our own will. I ask it, in Jesus' name.